A Kiss for a Killer

Original title: Une manche et la belle

1957
1h 45m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Betty Farnwell, a rich widow living in Nice, decides to marry Philippe, a good-looking but self-interested man. No sooner has he got married than he meets bewitching young Eve, Betty's niece... Read allBetty Farnwell, a rich widow living in Nice, decides to marry Philippe, a good-looking but self-interested man. No sooner has he got married than he meets bewitching young Eve, Betty's niece, and falls for her. Eve becomes his lover but the trouble is that she happens to be as ca... Read allBetty Farnwell, a rich widow living in Nice, decides to marry Philippe, a good-looking but self-interested man. No sooner has he got married than he meets bewitching young Eve, Betty's niece, and falls for her. Eve becomes his lover but the trouble is that she happens to be as calculating as he is. As a result she plans to marry a rich young man as Philippe is bound b... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

226

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
According to Mylène Demongeot in her biography, Henri Vidal behaved like a crazy womanizer during the shooting of this movie. And this despite the fact he was married to Michèle Morgan.

User reviews13

Review

Featured review

10/10

A James Hadley Chase "noir" that puts a new spin on old favorites

An unscrupulous fortune hunter (Henri Vidal), recently married to a wealthy older woman (Isa Miranda), is seduced by his wife's sexy secretary (Mylène Demongeot) but the lovers' plans for murder soon get complicated by the secrets all three keep in a twisty thriller adapted from James Hadley Chase's "The Sucker Punch". The prolific pulp novelist's work was heavily influenced by James M. Cain and here it's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE skillfully blended with a heavy dose of Billy Wilder's SUNSET BLVD. It's all there; the attractive older woman bringing a gigolo into her rococo mansion and buying him suits, grabbing his hand at a wrestling match, and pulling him down for a vampiric kiss as if Betty Schafer had convinced Joe Gillis to marry and murder Norma Desmond. Despite the familiar plot machinations, there's enough surprises to keep things fresh and the location filming on the French Riviera gives this cold-blooded noir an "evil under the sun" aura. The stunning Mylène Demongeot's lovely but lethal sex kitten is impossible to resist and it's easy to see how any man would kill for this seductive mix of Marilyn Monroe & Brigitte Bardot.